Ragnarok Odyssey for PS Vita: Cards and Classes Revealed

It’s Ragnarok Odyssey time! I wanted to share more details about the game’s beloved card equipment system, as well as the six job classes available in-game, so if you’re all about the meat of the gameplay, this will be an informative blog entry for you.

If any of you have played Ragnarok Online, you may already be familiar with how cards work in Ragnarok Odyssey. For those who haven’t played, don’t worry! I’ll explain. You will find cards in shops and from defeated monsters. Depending on what monster you defeat, different things will appear on these cards, such as their likeness, rarity, and specific new abilities and stat boosts. Taking advantage of this is easy, as all armor in the game has a Card Capacity gauge – and the more you upgrade your armor, the more cards you can equip. It’s a nifty little system for when you need an extra boost in firepower to defeat an ugly FrostGiant (they really aren’t all that cute) or a little extra HP.

How else do you change abilities in this game? Naturally, you change job classes. Ragnarok Odyssey provides six awesomely awesome job classes for you to choose from: Sword Warrior, Hammersmith, Mage, Assassin, Hunter and Cleric. While they’re all readily prepared for battle, they each have their own advantages, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find which one suits you most (Hammersmith is where it’s at, by the way).

The Sword Warrior is the most balanced of the job classes, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. A good offense and defense, as well as speedy combos and the ability to guard come with this package. While not necessarily the best at anything, this job class’s stats are far from the bottom, and it’s a great pick for beginners to play when getting a hang of the controls.

The Hammersmith (yeeeeah!) is the powerhouse of the group. This job class sacrifices speed in exchange for unmatchable raw power, as evidenced by the slow — but exceptionally devastating — hits with a giant hammer that can easily knock enemies across the screen. Unfortunately, because the hammer is a two-handed weapon, you cannot guard. Just be sure to always keep your wits about you as you take the offensive.

The Mage job class is as flashy and fabulous as you might imagine. While not particularly high in either defense or offense, mages have an uncanny ability to unexpectedly turn the tides of battle with elemental damage. This is also a job that can really take advantage of cards which increase elemental damage, because whether it’s a giant ball of fire or a chunk of the earth protruding from the ground, mages are all about being in their element.

Assassins are fast. And when I say fast, I mean really, really fast. In the time a Hammersmith does one attack, they do like, five and stuff. Sure, their attacks are among the weakest of the job classes, but add up each individual strike and the damage count can become quite staggering. For those who absolutely love fast-paced combat (as well as a sleek design, because the outfits are awesome), this is the job for you.

Hunters are the best option for those that prefer to hang back a little. Their defense is the lowest among the job classes, but so long as you stand a good bit away from your enemy, that won’t be a problem. This job is perfect for taking advantage of the lock-on ability, and you can send arrow after arrow in record time – or, if you’re in the mood for showmanship, charge your tension and be ready for a flurry of arrows.

And last, but not least, is the Cleric job class. Just as Hunters have the lowest defense, Clerics have the highest – their defense, as well as their HP, is unmatched. They can guard, too, and with the right timing, can counterattack right after guarding, making them a potent fighter. Just as their name implies, they can heal party members, too, so be sure to have a Cleric whenever you’re doing online multiplayer! It could save you a lot of hassle.

That’s all for today, folks! Ragnarok Odyssey, should be coming out later this month – we’ll let you know the exact release date soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

When is the release date? Ragnarok, Persona 4, LBP, Silent Hill which was surprinsgly fun god i was complaining about no games and now i am complainig about not having enough money to get them, BTW everone should follow what SCEA its doing the online games should be at least 5 busck cheaper like LBP, youre not spending money on plastic card and retailer i know you need servers but for the same prices its way better having a physycal game for a disscounted price however….

I’ve never played a game in this series, but I have it pre-ordered anyway. One question for a newbie: What’s combat like? Is it real time or more turn based? Just curious. Looking forward to a release date!

Everything is as real time as it gets! Lots of action. You run across a series of maps– you can run a little faster if you want to drain your stamina, or AP gauge– and take advantage of your weapons using different buttons. You can attack, use special attacks, jump (and when I say jump, sometimes that means five or six time into the air to reach the height of some giants- what’s gravity again?) , etc. It’s very, very action-oriented. We’ll have a gameplay trailer out soon, so you can get a more proper feel of how each job class works.

Thank you for the pre-order! We’ll do our best not to disappoint on our end.

We’ll definitely be letting everyone know the release date shortly! As for pricing, the Standard Edition of Ragnarok Odyssey will be $39.99, while the Mercenary Edition, which contains a meaty monster guide/art book, soundtrack CD, and ten randomized monster cards (out of many more!) containing monster portraits and their stats from the game will be $49.99.

I do know! :D While there’s no voice chat in the game, your characters can communicate via emoticons and body language. Things like talk bubbles with smiley faces, or a stream of hearts, or for body language, waving, high-fives, etc. The high-fives are especially fun to time just right, haha.

XSEED, my dear and faithful friend. Could you do us all a favour and bring some of those JRPGs over that “other” companies won’t. I bought Lord of Apocalypse off of PlayAsia, but I’m only about 1/2 way through my Pimsleur Japanese, so its only about 1/2 as enjoyable as it should be :)

Vita has tonnes of software but its all sitting over in the East. What a waste.

I don’t give a hoot for physical media or voice-overs either, just bring the games over :P (most people buying nice games don’t want English VOs, so I don’t understand all this localization fuss done by SE and Namco). I think Sony still has odd rules on subtitles in packaged games anyway, so digital/ subtitled is the best bet!

I almost pre-ordered this and then seen the style of the game. Won’t be getting it and I like japanese games. I want something like Dragons Dogma, Demon Souls, Fallout 3 or Skyrim on the PS Vita. Why do japanese developers still make these kind of games when they are clearly not doing as well as the game developers in America & Europe? This game looks like it’s for five year olds. I woulnd’t have played it on PS1 back in my younger days.

We definitely feel there’s an audience for Ragnarok Odyssey- in fact, it caught our eye because of the high demand for the game! It has a monster hunting feel, which is very successful in Japan, and being the first monster hunting title on the Vita -as well as having a relation to a very popular MMO- RO has a lot of love surrounding it. The complex combat is very friendly to the teen and above audience, and very challenging in the later chapters. We hope you’ll be willing to give it a chance when it comes out!

Thank you! We hope you like the Mercenary Edition (I came up with the collectible cards, so they’re my favorite part)! Orgarhythm, too! And yup, we are absolutely pushing for October. After that, we’ll keep trying our best to bring over more interesting titles for you to play.

A lot. There’s nine chapters, over a dozen bosses (and some are GIGANTIC!), and several dozen monsters occupying the fields you complete your quests in. Over fifty beasts, though I don’t know the exact number off the topic of my head!

There’s no grinding to level up with this game via experience points. Your basic stats rise every chapter, but you can raise your stats by equipping cards and upgrading your weapons or armor. Every job class has different stats that they’re better with (Hammersmith has higher attack, Cleric has higher defense, for examples), but the card system makes things very customization in terms of your stats.

1)The enemys/bosses always drop same card? or we can grind same bosses to look up for different types of cards?
2)There any rare cards that have some low drop chance in enemys? Some cards that are harder to get?
3)What about hours lenght of the game? theres any second playtrough or harder dificulty for the hardcore gamers?

Thank you! And ooh, very good questions:
1.) Both! A Poring will always drop a Poring card, but one Poring card may have different advantages compared to another. Bosses drop cards as well, so gotta catch (or collect) ‘em all!

2.) Yes! There are rarities with cards, both boss and regular. Again, using the Poring card as an example- there could be a 1 Star rarity Poring card, or a 5 Star rarity Poring card; the 5 star one will obviously benefit you more, since it’s a stronger and harder to find card.

3.) I’d estimate about a 50-60+ hour playthrough. And the game is plenty difficult- on normal mode, I started feeling the difficulty rise around chapter 7 out of 9. Some bosses have very specific strategies, and they took me several tries to beat. You can also play the multiplayer difficulty as a single player, so imagine fighting a boss that’s supposed to take several people on your own- that’s quite a fight. You enter the tavern for one difficulty, the guild for the other, so you can use them interchangeably on a single playthrough.

I wish you’d let us at least know when in October, this ambiguity is killing me.

If its October 16th, why not say so? If its October 30th, please let us know! There are other games I can get right now, but if it’s out in 2 weeks then I won’t get another game because I won’t have time to finish it when this comes out

Alternatively, if it comes out on 10/30 that’s plenty of time to pick up another game. The ambiguity is KILLING me

We just want to be absolutely sure of the date before releasing anything- any little thing can cause a setback, so once we’re absolutely, positively 100%, we’ll let your know! At least it’s within the month!

There is no competitive mode, just co-operative. And essentially, it co-op will work exactly like single player mode, just with more people! The monsters will be more difficult and the drops will be nicer because of that, but you can use the same exact maps and fight the same exact bosses as in single player mode. The only thing is that you can only choose a map as far as the lowest level character has been- for example, if you have a four people- two in chapter 7, one in chapter 6 and one in chapter 3- you’ll only be able to pick maps up to chapter 3.

I actually have no idea, but I asked around the office and the general consensus is you should be able to- just that DLC to our region won’t work with Asian save data. Don’t hold us to that, though! Thank you for giving us your support!

When i first saw this game i knew it was gonna be awesome even the title sounds awesome. i was waiting for a game like this to come on the vita and now its coming. im just sad i have to wait to pick it up because i waiting for the call of duty/vita bundle and on the same day im picking this game and uncharted up. thank you so much for this game. i think this game has a chance to be the vita game of the year but it has to beat out LBPvita and AC:Liberation!!!!

Hell yeah!
This game is the reason i bought my Vita last month.
I’m so depressed that i can’t buy the Mercenary Edition, which is beautiful, because just the 10 extra dollars will make my country charge me for the import, that’s 60% the value of the package.
Since i’m kinda on a budget in the end of this year, i’ll start saving so i can buy it later for my collection.

Just one question:
Can i save a set of class and equipment for fast change?

Awww, that’s really too bad. Still, we’re glad you’re excited for it and you’ll be able to play it!

And to answer your question, yes, you can! You can set a class of equipment, cards and accessories for a job class, then switch over to another and create new sets for that specific job class. Makes for a very easy switch when you’re dealing with certain elements.

Ragnarok Odyssey is mostly action-oriented, with the story elements told between the chapters through NPC dialogue. There’s a lot to learn if you talk to the townspeople, but if you’re in it for the action, you can skip a lot of the dialogue easily. I’d say it’s on the minimal side, with no voicework outside of your playable character’s battle cries and NPC quips.

I’ll admit I pre-ordered it even though I don’t own a Vita… I just love those XSEED Limited Editions! ^^ Those YS LE were just awesome and this one looks to be just as much! Now I just hope there’ll be a price cut on the Vita soon so I can buy one and actually play the game though :P

I have 7 questions:
1. Can you change the voce of your character like english to japanese?
2. Is October 30 in US is the final release date of the game?
3. Does the costumes do anything with defense?
4. Do you buy the classes to unlock them (if you want to change your class in one save)?
5. Is the online multiplayer uses wi fi internet or just ad hoc?
6. Is the online multiplayer region locked (like you cant play with a person living in a different country)?
7. Can you play online w/ a friend that has the different copy (like my friend have the asian localized one) of the game?

Thanks XSEED! I love this game, and its like the best game that i will have in my PSVITA! Cant wait for the game to come out in US !

Since there’s seven questions and these have a limited word-count, I’ll answer half here, and the other half on your corrected post. All right, here we go!

1.) There are 16 different types of English voices per sex if I recall correctly, but you can’t change the language. Cool type, boyish/girlish type, sexy type, gentleman/womanly type- you can choose those, and you can change them any time throughout your playthrough.

2.) October is the only thing we’ve said as far as a release date, so news about the exact date will be coming up within the month!

3.) The costumes have various stats with them, or rather, they each come with a card that has boosted stats. You can raise the card capacity for your costumes, meaning how many cards you can equip on that specific costume, so technically, yes, they can have something to do with defense!

4.) You do not have to buy the classes to unlock them. The first three chapters you will start with one class of your choosing, then, by chapter 4, all of them will be available to you and you can switch between them for no charge!

5.) The North American version will have online multiplayer via wi-fi right from the start.

6.) The online multiplayer is indeed region-locked in that way. Sorry!

7.) We’re actually not sure about this one! We’ve never tried it, haha. I suppose it’s something you two can test once the game comes out!